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Rolla, ND | Sorry about your loss,
For the cat, if it had a tag with a [phone number, I'd call, if it didn't, I wouldn't.
I've only hit one cat over the years. Never could figure out how people hit them then one day one came flying out of the grass and under my wheels, so now I know.
As far as speed, might be a contributing factor in this case, might not. I know you see people going by fast than you think they should everyday so it's pretty easy to conclude.
I think though of one dog. I was driving on a very wide gravel road, there were two dogs crouched down in the grass on the one side. I slowed way down, I pulled away from them almost into the grass and then they came running and the one went right into my tire and that was that, he was gone instantly. The guy with me said, and I can still hear it though it was over 30 years ago, "You did everything you could to miss that dog and he just committed suicide."
It bothered me hitting that dog, even though I don't think if there was any person at fault that it was me.
If I had gone by at 70, that dog would have still been alive. He had his run timed to get there to give a bark and he never would have gotten in front if I had just been flying low.
Hit an old lady's dog one time. It was a house dog, she was out, it had crossed the road. I say the lady and slowed down because the road was dusty and I didn't want to put up a cloud going past her. Well just as I got there the dog ran out of the ditch grass on the other side and that was that. I felt terrible as we buried her best friend.
Only hit one cat in my life, could never figure out how they would get hit until that one came flying out of the ditch and under the tires.
That's probably the basic thing that happened in your case too. Cat was probably on the other side of the road and when the car came it ran to get home. Maybe speed would have made a difference, maybe not. The animal doesn't tend to run until the car gets into it's comfort zone and then it heads home. If you are going slow and happen to be looking at the right spot at the right moment, maybe you can miss them.
It's like that deer that just insists on running across because in it's mind safety is on the other side.
As far as speed limits, I'm sure you have them, just they aren't posted. Would be reasonable for there to be a sign posted. I do tend to slow down anyway in places such as your folks live because I hate running down people even more than animals. This even though I don't really think it would be my fault for someone going out in and building right on a high speed road. I don't appreciate it either when they post things like 15 mph speed limits on the assumption everyone is going to be 20 over any limit anyway, or you find they just put up signs without it being the legal limit.
A lower limit is one thing, enforcement of the existing limit another.
One way to get a handle on how fast people are going is a radar sign, most of them come with a recorder of how fast people are going while they give a visual feedback to drivers.
I would guess that you would see a reduction in the speeding if there was a sign posting a limit and the radar right there telling the driver how fast he's going. If not, it would have the data to go to the county and show people are speeding.
If others in the neighborhood also think speeding is a problem, take up a collection and buy a radar sign. Battery life is several weeks, needs someone to do the recharging and such.
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Running over someone's pet./ no speed limit on a rural residential road
